


Spaghetti

by SailorChibi



Series: aro-ace Valentine fics [13]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aromantic Character, Aromantic Tony Stark, Asexual Character, Asexual Peter Parker, Asexual Tony Stark, Gen, Peter Parker is a Good Son, Tony Stark is a Good Dad, aro-ace tony stark, dating and all its intricacies, peter parker has the best of intentions, peter parker's heart is in the right place, setting up people on a date, what a pure sweet boy he is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-28 16:13:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17790608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorChibi/pseuds/SailorChibi
Summary: Peter decides that being aro-ace shouldn't stop Tony from dating, and who better than to set Tony up with May?





	Spaghetti

**Author's Note:**

> As an aro-ace woman, Valentine's can be hard. This fic touches especially close to my heart because sometimes being with a partner isn't for everyone, but damned if Hollywood knows that.
> 
> Note: someone who is asexual does not feel sexual attraction. Someone who is aromantic does not feel romantic attraction. These are two separate, independent things and, while someone can be both, people can also just be one or the other.

“I think Mr. Stark needs a girlfriend.”

Ned looks up. “What,” he says, and it’s not even a question. 

“No, no, hear me out. I think he’s lonely,” Peter says, frowning at the screen. He absently kills off half a dozen enemies and adds, “Pepper and Happy are getting married and that has to be hard for him.”

“Isn’t he always surrounded by women?” Ned says.

“Umm… not really. Not anymore. He usually has a date to an event, but that’s about it.” And Peter knows why, though he can’t say as much to Ned. He guards the talk he had with Tony as closely to his heart as he does his secret identity. 

Ned frowns. “But he’s like, a billionaire. Couldn’t he get a date on his own?”

“I dunno. Probably,” Peter says, shrugging. “But he’s also a superhero. It’s hard for normal people to get close to him.” He tips his head. “Who do I know that’s a nice, normal woman around Mr. Stark’s age?” It’s an unfortunately short list now that he thinks about it. There just aren’t a lot of people that Tony Stark can trust, and even fewer of those people are women who are around the right age. He drums his fingers on the controller.

“Well…”

“Well, what?”

“There’s your aunt.”

“What?! Dude! Gross!” Peter flails at him. Ned dodges the half-hearted swats, laughing like a maniac.

“What? Your aunt and Mr. Stark are the same age. She hasn’t dated anyone since your uncle passed away, right? Maybe she’s lonely too.”

Peter pauses at that, blinking at Ned. “You… you think so?”

“How should I know?” Ned says, shrugging. “Maybe you set them up on a date and see what happens.”

“Ew,” Peter says, pulling a face at him. “That’s like… like setting my mom and dad up on a date.”

“My parents have date nights all the time,” Ned says. 

“Urgh,” Peter mutters, slumping down over the controller. Just for that, he kills Ned’s character. Ned squawks in betrayal and the subject is forgotten.

Except it’s not. It stays in Peter’s brain for the next few days. He finds himself watching his aunt. He’s never talked about sexuality with May – the sex talk was horrifying enough – but she must be attracted to men if she was married to Uncle Ben, right? And she and Tony do flirt sometimes, though he’s pretty sure they only do it when Peter’s around because they get a kick out of his reactions. 

Tony’s aromantic and asexual, Peter knows. He doesn’t fall in love, and he’s not interested in having sex with anyone. But Tony’s had relationships before, most notably with Pepper. He even said he would’ve married Pepper had she not fallen in love with Happy. So that must mean that Tony wants a relationship of some kind, right? No one wants to be alone.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he mutters at dinner one night.

“What’s that, Honey?” May says, sounding distracted.

“We haven’t been out for supper for a long time,” Peter says louder, looking up at her. “What do you think of us going out to Bello Italiano tomorrow night?”

May actually looks at him then, blinking. “Well, that sounds like a lovely idea. You’re right, it has been a while.” She smiles. “I’d love to. I have to work a little bit later tomorrow night, so how about we meet there at seven?”

“Perfect,” Peter says with a half-hearted smile, slipping his phone into his lap. He surreptitously texts FRIDAY. It takes a bit, but she eventually comes back with confirmation that she’s put dinner with Peter Parker at Bello Italiano at 7pm Thursday night into Tony’s schedule, and that she’s called the restaurant to make the reservation in Peter’s name. FRIDAY is the absolute best sometimes, honestly. 

He gets a text from Tony himself later, just a series of question marks. Peter texts back that they’re celebrating good news – because hopefully, they will be if the date goes the way he wants it to – and then shuts his phone off, rolling over into bed with a sigh. He’s not wholly sure about the idea of Tony and May dating, but Ned’s right. It does make a certain amount of sense. At the very least, they’ve got Peter in common.

The next night, Spider-Man lands half a block away from Bello Italiano. He retracts the suit, leaving him in jeans and a black sweatshirt, and tugs a black baseball cap down low oer his eyes. No one looks at him twice as he casually ambles up the sidewalk. He’s just in time to see May walking into the restaurant. Peter stakes out a good spot and waits, biting anxiously at his fingernails, until a sleek car pulls up to the curb and Tony gets out. He only breathes once Tony is inside.

As stealthily as he can, Peter slinks closer to the restaurant and peers into the window. It takes him a few seconds to pinpoint May and Tony. Their looks of confusion when Tony is led over to May’s table would be funny under any other circumstances, but right now Peter is just holding his breath. He’s honestly expecting one or both of them to just get up and leave, and is honestly shocked when Tony sits down.

“Oh my god it’s working,” he hisses under his breath, staring at them with wide eyes. Reading lips is never a skill he picked up, but right now Peter really wishes he could because Tony is saying something and May is laughing.

Someone knocks on the window. Peter jumps, jerking backwards and knocking a flowerpot off the edge by accident with his elbow. His gaze snaps to the waiter standing there with crossed arms, and he realizes his spying has been noticed.

“Sorry. Sorry!” Peter mouths, hastily scurrying away from the window. He’s not dressed to enter the restaurant, and Tony and May would notice if he did anyway. He settles for the next best thing. 

People walking by probably wonder why Spider-Man is camped out on the roof of the building across from Bello Italiano, but oh well. The real problem is that he can’t see either of them from this distance, even when he asks KAREN to zoom in. Tony and May are seated too far back in the restaurant to be seen unless he’s on street level. Spider-Man spends half an hour squinting from various positions before he gives up, sprawling back on the roof and huffing in outright frustration.

“Rough night, kid?”

“Shit!” Spider-Man screeches in surprise and moves in ways that should be physically impossible in his rush to scramble away from whatever – or whoever – just scared ten years off his life. He ends up several feet away, plastered against the roof to the door.

Iron Man looks over at him casually. “How do you like my new stealth suit?”

“It’s great, I hate it,” Spider-Man says, clutching his chest. His heart is thudding against his palms. 

The faceplate snaps up to reveal Tony’s grinning face. “I figured you’d get a kick out of it. I know it’s doing its job if I can sneak up on you.”

A horrible suspicion occurs to Spider-Man, and he sits up straight. “Wait, how long were you behind me?!”

“Like five minutes. Your spider sense is slipping.”

“My spider sense doesn’t declare you a threat, which you already know,” Spider-Man says sulkily. They discovered that during a few rounds of testing one weekend he spent at the tower. There’s not much that can slip by Peter, but people he completely trusts? Yeah, they slide right under the radar. Clearly, he needs to reprogram his spider sense immediately.

“I know,” Tony says. “Care to explain why you’ve staked out the roof across from a restaurant that your aunt and I are _coincidentally_ having dinner at? Especially since you were _coincidentally_ supposed to meet both of us there for dinner tonight?” He looks at Spider-Man expectantly.

“Um,” Spider-Man says. “Not really.”

The armor opens up and Tony steps out. He’s wearing nice jeans and a buttoned shirt. “Too bad. Turns out that I’m gonna need more of an explanation than ‘not really’.”

“I forgot that I made plans with both of you?” Spider-Man offers lamely.

“I’m not even gonna dignify that one with an answer.”

“Ugh,” Spider-Man mutters, because it really is like having another parent, and retracts the helmet so he can pout up at Tony. He’s far enough away from the edge of the roof that no one can see him from the street, and deep enough in the shadows that no human eyes could make him out, and maybe the puppy eyes will help his case. Tony just looks at him, unamused, and folds his arms.

“I’m waiting,” he says.

“I thought that you were lonely,” Peter blurts out.

Tony freezes. “What?”

“That night we talked… you said that you and Pepper had broken up because she wanted to get married, but you didn’t want that. And you seemed so… I don’t know, sad.” Peter looks down at the roof to avoid Tony’s astonished gaze. “I thought – I don’t know, I just thought it didn’t seem fair that you think you can’t date anyone just because you’re aromantic. I wanted you to be happy.”

Tony’s quiet for what feels like several minutes, but is probably only a few seconds. Then he says, “And you thought setting me up with your aunt would do that?”

“You guys flirted before,” Peter says, shrugging. “I thought you liked each other. And I think Aunt May is lonely too. It seemed like the obvious answer to set you up. But I didn’t think you’d just… go on a date with each other, but I figured neither one of you would walk out on a dinner.”

“Ah, Spiderling.” Tony pinches the bridge of his nose and lets out a deep sigh. 

“I’m sorry,” Peter mutters, torn between embarrassment and shame. Obviously his grand plan has backfired. This will teach him to listen to Ned.

“Peter… listen.” Tony sits down beside him, looking at Peter seriously. “I appreciate the thought, okay? I really do. But I’m not unhappy. I don’t mind being alone. In fact, I kind of like it. I like not having to put someone else first. I like not having to worry about someone else’s feelings all the time. I like not feeling like I’m never living up to someone else’s expectations.”

Peter frowns at that. “But… you told me that you would’ve married Pepper.”

“Yeah, I would have. Because she was my friend and I love her and we were both very comfortable together,” Tony says. “That doesn’t mean I’m looking for someone else.”

“But you’re alone,” Peter says, frowning deeper.

“There’s a difference between being _alone_ and being _lonely_ , Pete. I’m not lonely. I have my ‘bots and FRIDAY. I have you and Harley. I have Rhodey. I have Pepper and Happy. I have Hope and Stephen and Carol. I have Charles, Reed and Sue, Jess, Danny, Luke and Matt. I have a hell of a lot more now than I’ve ever had before.” Tony’s smile is quick but sincere. “And I’m getting more every day, with each new hero that signs the Accords.”

“That’s great, Mr. Stark, but don’t you like… want a partner? You know, someone to come home to at the end of a long day?”

Tony snorts, then starts laughing. “Oh my god. You really need to stop watching all those trashy Hollywood movies.”

Peter flushes. “What?!”

“Kid, I don’t need a wife or husband to make me happy at the end of the day. I have pretty much everything I need. I don’t really want to get married, truth be told,” Tony admits, still chuckling. “I would’ve married Pepper ‘cause she really wanted it, but me? I’m not a huge fan of the idea.”

Tony seems sincere enough that Peter relaxes, the worry that Tony is lonely finally easing. “I’m sorry,” he says shyly. “I was just trying to help.”

“I know you were. And I appreciate you trying to set me up with your aunt. I’m honored you think I’m worthy of her.”

“You would’ve treated her right,” Peter says, somewhat regretfully.

“I still can,” Tony says, and Peter glances over at him as Tony gets up. “Come on, Underoos. Let’s go stuff ourselves with pasta until we can barely move.”

“Really?” Peter’s eyes light up. With his metabolism, he’s almost always hungry. He doesn’t get the chance to eat until he’s truly full unless he’s at the tower, because May just can’t afford to buy that much food. He’s never gotten the chance to do it in a restaurant.

“Really,” Tony says, grinning.

“You’re on!” Peter scrambles to his feet, retracting his suit the rest of the way.

“Hey, Peter?”

“What?”

Tony puts a hand on his shoulder, eyes serious. “Just because I don’t want a partner doesn’t mean you shouldn’t, okay? If having a boyfriend or girlfriend would make you happy, then that’s something you should pursue. But don’t ever feel like you need to have a partner just because society tells you that you should. We’re all different, and we all want different things. That’s okay.”

“Okay,” Peter says thoughtfully. That’s something he’ll have to think about more – when pasta isn’t on the line. He clutches at Tony’s arm. “Hurry up, Mr. Stark! They might run out of spaghetti!”

“I doubt it. Besides, remember that you still get to explain to your aunt that you were trying to set me and her up.” Tony smirks as he steps backwards into the armor.

Peter freezes. “Uh, on second thought, I’m not that hungry.”

“Too late,” Tony says in a sing-song voice, grabbing Peter around the middle. Peter yelps in protest as his feet leave the ground and the armor flies him down to his doom.

At least with pasta on the menu, he can die happy.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](http://tsuki-chibi.tumblr.com/).


End file.
